In Da Club

As GB and I stood waiting in the Square for the other members of the ACG to join us, the South African pair hove into few, and my heart sank. Mr and Mrs Very Fast. Very lovely, but very fast. They don’t RSVP so I never know to expect them. Mr SA was wearing red, which as it turns out is red in the red rag to a bull sense.

You see normally today would have been a blindingly good ride for me. My legs were feeling fine, the newly adjusted bike felt good, and for the most part I was flying along at 18/19 mph. However…the peloton, being GB, DM, SD and the SAs were off on one…so I still got left behind! *grin*. (Well, Mr SA anyway, as Mrs SA was under the weather and left us at Mark).

There’s this red competitive haze that descends over the testosterone afflicted when those two come out – heaven forbid we should admit we don’t usually go that fast. Oh no, we have to keep up. Well, I would if I could! *grin*. I had to settle for knowing that I was doing really well by my standards, enjoying the relatively mild weather and the fairly unfamiliar roads, and not grumping too much. Ho hum.

DM made us a lovely route which took us round the Levels and down to Catcott and Ashcott, taking in coffee at Sweets at the way back, from whence Mr SA headed for home to check on his good wife, leaving the rest of us to collapse in a heap and recover over coffee. I’m sure keeping up was good for us but still… The Tor 2000 lot were there when we arrived, and still there when we left….they clearly chatter worse than we do! Not to us though, as clearly we’re not up to their lofty standards 😉

The ride home was a lot of fun. My legs have felt like they had an extra gear all week – they seem to have benefitted from last weekend’s event – and there was some caffeine aided hurtling to be done. Just for the flies in your teeth fun of it *grin*. DM found us a totally uncalled for and very steep little hill on the way home, up which I think I managed to make a fairly good showing. Mind you I noticed as I reached the top that I was doing that hot/cold sweat + lip tingling thing which is not a good sign. Push too hard and…faint? Except luckily I didn’t. Sometimes I’m more afflicted that way than others – my postural hypotension is particularly bad today and I think it was related. Yes, I’m getting old, and clearly falling apart *grin*.

We arrived back in the Square having done a reasonable distance at a very presentable average speed. Honour satisfied 🙂

It was my first ride in a long time without my knee strapped up and I’m pleased to report that once it had warmed up it felt pretty good. The right shoulder is another matter. I really can’t look over it to, for example, check on traffic coming up from behind, without fairly excruciating pain, and that’s even with painkillers. Far from ideal, and a tad dangerous. :/ It’s also hard to tell if the tweaks to the bike have improved things until that’s stopped, although the ride did feel very comfortable, so that’s a good start.